The star of the self-aware film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has long been a fan of comic books and superheroes. His screen name is based on Marvel’s Luke Cage. He was once cast to play Superman in a film directed by Tim Burton with a script written by Kevin Smith (Masters of the Universe: Revelation). He played Johnny Blaze in 2007’s Ghost Rider and its sequel in 2011. And most recently, he provided the voice for Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Superman in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018). But why would the irreverent method actor have his sights on the obscure Batman villain Egghead? Check out what Nicolas Cage had to say below.
Interest in The Batman
During the promotion for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, Nicolas Cage was asked about what roles he would like to play that he hasn’t yet. Cage answered by pointing out the classic literary anti-hero Captain Nemo, but also a specific Batman villain from the 1966 TV series that starred Adam West: Cage continued by expanding on how he would approach the Egghead character existing in the same world as Robert Pattinson’s version of the Dark Knight:
Who is Egghead?
Egghead was a character that did not originate from the comic books. Instead, he was created for the TV show itself. The villain was played by horror icon Vincent Price. As the character’s name implies, he was a scientific genius that used egg motifs for his gadgets. He was also fond of using egg puns in his dialogue (i.e. egg-sactly, egg-cellent, etc.). It is interesting to note that the character was very much a tongue-in-cheek and campy bad guy, as is the norm with the psychedelic nature of the Adam West Batman TV series. Nicolas Cage playing a darker and more sinister version would be a challenge, particularly with the more grounded approach in The Batman. But given how well Cage can switch from calm to manic in his roles like in Vampire’s Kiss (1988), Face-Off (1997), and as Big Daddy in Kick-Ass (2010), he could certainly deliver a new, menacing spin on the absurdity of Egghead.
Epic comeback
Whether or not Nic Cage gets his wish to play Egghead in the DCEU or the alternate universe set in Matt Reeves’s The Batman, 2022 might be the year the actor makes his epic comeback. Even other Hollywood stars like Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings own Simu Liu is looking forward to Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent:
— Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) March 14, 2022 On that note, Cage may have to wait for a while before he gets his shot at a Batman villain role. Matt Reeves will be busy with developing The Batman sequel (which may or may not involve Barry Keoghan’s version of The Joker), as well as the spinoffs for The Penguin, Catwoman, and Arkham Asylum on HBO Max. Meanwhile, Cage himself will be working on the western The Old Way and playing Dracula in Renfield. Produced under Lionsgate, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent stars Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddishm Neil Patrick Harris, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Jacob Scipio, and Lily Sheen. Directed by Tom Gormica, the film releases to theaters on April 22, 2022.
